author
Jacques Delille
1738–1813
Remembered in his lifetime as the “French Virgil,” this 18th-century poet helped bring classical verse to a wide audience through elegant translations and popular descriptive poems. His work on nature, gardening, and rural life made him one of the best-known literary figures of his day.
1 Audiobook
Os jardins ou a arte de aformosear as paisagens: Poema
by Jacques Delille
About the author
Born in 1738 and dying in Paris in 1813, Jacques Delille was a French poet, translator, and scholar who rose to prominence with his verse translation of Virgil’s Georgics. He studied in Paris, later taught Latin poetry at the Collège de France, and was elected to the Académie française in 1774.
Delille became especially admired for polished, musical verse that brought classical subjects into fashionable French literary life. He also found a large readership with poems on landscape and the natural world, including writing on gardens and rural scenes, which helped build his international reputation.
His fame was enormous in his own era, though his standing changed after his death as literary tastes moved away from the refined didactic style he represented. Even so, he remains an important figure for readers interested in French poetry, translation, and the literary culture of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.